KL5013 - Practicum 2 in Mechanical Aerospace Engineering

Learning in this module is based on a team project designing and building a small flying vehicle. The project work run in small teams will encourage you to take responsibility for specific parts of the team work thus fostering simultaneously crucial teamwork and individual responsibility skills. Starting from the overview of existing technical designs you will develop your their own alternative and assess your design, the methods of its manufacture and testing. Your design will take into account the applicable health & safety regulations, societal, environmental and commercial norms, codes of practice and industry standards. To analyse your design, you will be using the industry-standard software, The practical team work will be supported by a limited amount of seminars, numerical simulations and workshop trials, as well as directed and independent learning efforts.

You will be expected to use extensively the support material provided via the eLP to progress your own learning outside of timetabled hours. Some of the timetabled classes may involve tutor-lead “questions-and-answers” sessions while other will require student group presentations providing further student-to-student explanations and responses.

During scheduled contact sessions, academic support will be available to assist your problem-solving activity. Formative feedback will be provided by the module team, including answering student queries and providing guidance in relation to the module such as the assessments and your academic progress. Workshops, supported by lab tutors, effectively provide verbal feedback and comments throughout the session. Such comments may be generic and applicable to all students, typically noting procedures or some technical guideline or could be more directed to the individuals learning. The electronic learning platform (eLP) provides a comprehensive resource for integrated learning incorporating learning materials and reading lists that will facilitate directed and self-directed learning. Contact with academic tutors and your peers outside formal teaching hours is encouraged through ‘Office Hours’ policy, discussion boards and messaging systems within the eLP. Professional support staff, such as Ask4Help, provide a first point of contact for a range of queries, including, for example, those concerning assessment submission, late submission / extensions, and other administrative issues.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

MLO1 Design and implement engineering solutions in aerospace-related mechanical engineering in response to broadly -defined customer needs. The proposed solutionswill be done under constraints of applicable health & safety, societal, environmental and commercial norms, codes of practice and industry standards (AHEP4 C5, C11)

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

MLO2 Assess and select the necessary laboratory, numerical simulation and workshop methods and techniques to investigate broadly defined problems in aerospace-related mechanical engineering (AHEP4 C12)


Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity):

MLO3 Evaluate the environmental and societal impact of solutions to broadly defined problems in aerospace-related mechanical engineering and minimise adverse impacts (AHEP4 C7)

MLO4 Identify and analyse ethical concerns and make reasoned ethical choices informed by professional codes of conduct (AHEP4 C8)

MLO5 Plan, conduct, and assess own work as an individual engineer or as a member or leader of a team (AHEP4 C16)

Formative Assessment

The interrelated series of activities provide many opportunities for both tutor and peer formative feedback and there will be specific formal opportunities for formative feedback which are: completion of an individual self-assessment of general, technical and transferrable skills, engagement in peer assessment.


Summative Assessment

The summative assessment tasks will draw upon substantial contributions from the formative tasks.

Component 1 is a team presentation and a brieftechnical report presenting the design solution to an industry-related problem with a comprehensive assessment of relevant technical decisions, associated ethical, environmental and societal concerns and their mitigation (MLO1, MLO2, MLO3 MLO4)

Component 2, assessing MLO5, is the individual report describing the team structure, the individual’s role in the team, the technical details of the individual contribution and the skills and lessons learnt audit.

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This module introduces you to fundamental notions and techniques essential to Mechanical Aerospace engineering. Through a set of small projects, you will learn the basics of aerodynamics, powered flight, aircraft control systems, flight dynamics, and the basics of turbomachinery. The module also introduces the skills of engineering: design, analysis, and the rigorous approach to manufacturing and testing procedures that are the hallmark of aerospace industry. In the workshop sessions, the students will work in small teams to build lightweight structures that can withstand the forces required to fly and test them and create simple control and propulsion systems. Work on small projects will reinforce the knowledge and understanding acquired in other modules and demonstrate how the fundamental engineering science may be applied to design of aerospace vehicles or systems, or their components. Work in small groups will bring you acquisition and practice of teamwork and communication skills. In addition to extensive formative feedback, the summative assessment consists of two components: one is a team technical report presenting the design solution to an industry-related problem with a comprehensive assessment of relevant technical decisions, associated ethical, environmental and societal concerns and their mitigation and the other is the individual report describing the team structure, the individual’s role in the team, and the skills and lessons learnt audit.